Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through local interaction. We have demonstrated that this phenomenon is scale-independent and can be utilized for self-constructing and manufacturing systems at nearly every scale

4D printing is the fact that materials can change to another shape. "It is like robotics but without the robot." The fourth dimension in 4D printing is the time that allow the shape to transform.

Currently self-assembly materials promise to be ideal in environment where we cannot access easily like space or even infrastuctures.

More globally, Skylar Tibbits draft a future where the current complex and inefficient assemblies of human constructions could be replaced with a new smarter & evolutive system empowering the reality of nanometric structure of materials.

3D printing has grown in sophistication since the late 1970s; TED Fellow Skylar Tibbits is shaping the next development, which he calls 4D printing, where the fourth dimension is time. This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then ...